698 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



noids, and sponges, and upon these his opinion was regarded as of great 

 weight. He was, says " Nature," speaking of his residence at Belfast, 

 " something besides an enthusiastic biologist. . . . By interesting him- 

 self not only in what concerned the college, but even in the welfare of 

 the town in which it was located, he soon gathered around him a host 

 of intelligent and warm-hearted friends. In social life, it was but an 

 accident that would reveal the biologist, and one witnessed only the 

 general culture and the artistic taste of a well-bred man." 



His associate in the Challenger Expedition, Mr. Moseley, has given, 

 in a notice in the " Academy," a graphic sketch of his personality as it 

 manifested itself during the observations on board the vessel. " His 

 enthusiasm," says Mr. Moseley, " with regard to everything connected 

 with the dredging, sounding, and various physical and chemical opera- 

 tions carried on in the deep sea during the cruise, knew no bounds. He 

 spent hours on deck watching them, and waiting for the dredge to 

 come up, and though, as time wore on, the interest of the seamen and 

 naval officers in the arrival of the dredge or trawl at the surface failed, 

 and that even of the remainder of the scientific staff flagged, he was 

 never known to be absent at the moment it appeared at the ship's side, 

 whatever the weather, but was to be seen peering down into the water, 

 eagerly attempting to diagnose the contents of the net when it was 

 still dipping in and out of the sea-surface as the ship rolled to and fro. 

 "When once it was on board, he would eagerly grope for treasures, 

 squeezing each cephalopod between his fingers, always with a lurking 

 hope to find a belemnite's bone in it, or expecting at last to grasp a 

 trilobite. These never came, but there was an abundance of other 

 wonders." 



Concluding his sketch, Mr. Moseley says : " Sir Wyville was an ex- 

 cellent lecturer, a most genial companion, and an excellent host. He 

 was fond of amusements of all kinds, and was never happier than when 

 he went on shore from the Challenger in some out-of-the-way island, 

 with his gun on his shoulder, in pursuit of birds-of -paradise, or other 

 treasures." 



A fund of five hundred guineas has been raised by subscription for 

 erecting a memorial to Sir "Wyville Thomson ; with respect to which 

 it has been decided that a bust by Mr. J. T. Hutchinson, R S. A., shall 

 be placed in the University Hall, Edinburgh, and that what is left of 

 the fund shall be devoted to putting a stained-glass window in the 

 church of St. Michael at Linlithgow. 



